METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PARENT/CHILD APPLICATION INTEGRATION

• US 20070074181A1
• Filed: 08/24/2006
• Published: 03/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LinkedIn Corporation (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Gao, Yan, Ma, Yong, Zhanh, Yao
• Granted Patent: US 7,870,566 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/136
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/543 Local
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/545 Gui
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications

Abstract

To integrate a parent application and a child application, the parent application receives events through a user interface. If the events are to be processed by the child application, they are propagated to the child application. The child application generates content data based on the received events, writes the content data into a storage module, and then notifies the parent application. The parent application reads out the content data written in the storage module.

Claims

1. A method for integrating a parent application and a child application comprising:

receiving, by the parent application, an event through a user interface;

propagating the event to the child application if the event is to be processed by the child application;

generating, by the child application, content data based on the event;

writing, by the child application, the content data into a storage module;

notifying the parent application by the child application, that content based data has been generated; and

reading the content data, by the parent application, written in the storage module by the child application.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the storage module is one of:

a shared memory, a shared file, and a shared display buffer.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the parent application and the child application belong to different processes.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the parent application and the child application run on an operating system that does not support application integration between processes.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the parent application corresponds to a parent window, the child application corresponds to a child window, and the child application is a plug-in.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5, further comprising refreshing, by the parent application, the child window according to the content data.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the parent application selectively uses content data read out from the storage module.

8. A system for integrating a parent application and a child application, comprising:

a user event interface process module through which the parent application receives events;

a child application event process module for generating content data based on the events;

a first communication module that propagates events from the user event interface process module to the child application event process module if the events are to be processed by the child application;

a storage module for storing content data generated by the child application event process module;

a content update module for writing content data in the storage module from the child application event process module;

a content reading module for reading out content data written in the storage module responsive to a notification; and

a second communication module for notifying the content reading module from the child application after the storage module stores the content data.

9. The system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the storage module is one of:

a share memory, a shared file, and a shared display buffer.

10. The system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the parent application and the child application belong to different processes.

11. The system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the parent application and the child application run on an operating system that does not support application integration between processes.

12. The system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the parent application corresponds to a parent window, the child application corresponds to a child window, and the child application is a plug-in.

13. The system as claimed in claim 12, further comprising a display module for refreshing the child window according to content data read out by the content reading module.

14. The system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the parent application selectively uses content data read out from the storage module.

15. A computer program product to integrate a parent application and a child application, the computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable medium comprising;

computer usable program code configured to receive, by the parent application, events through a user interface;

computer usable program code configured to propagate received events to the child application if the events are to be processed by the child application;

computer usable program code continued to generate, by the child application, content data based on received events;

computer usable program code configured to write, by the child application, the content data into a storage module;

computer usable program code configured to notify the parent application by the child application, that content data has been generated; and

computer usable program code configured to read the content data, by the parent application written in the storage module by the child application.

16. The computer program product as claimed in claim 15, further comprising computer usable program code configured to refresh, by the parent application, the child window according to content data.